Crisis forces ministry to suspend its projects

Crisis forces ministry to suspend its projects

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower has suspended almost
all of its development projects, including the vocational
training program, due to the worsening economic crisis, an
official said yesterday.

Yudo Swasono, chief of the planning and development board in
the Ministry of Manpower, told The Jakarta Post that all
development projects except the nationwide labor-intensive ones
had been suspended and its development budget frozen.

"The government recently decided to stop all development
projects and refocus all budgets on the social safety net program
and labor-intensive projects because of the worsening economic
crisis."

He said that more and more companies had laid-off or fired
their workers and the number of unemployed had risen from 14
million earlier this year to over 20 million.

He said the ministry had postponed all training programs at
its 152 training centers across the country and all directorates
at the ministry had been asked to take cost-cutting measures.

He agreed with the decision to suspend development projects,
saying that ensuring a steady supply of food was more important
to the country in its current circumstances.

"It is better for the government to suspend all projects and
work to ensure the people don't go hungry," he said.

The ministry's development budget for the 1998/1999 fiscal
year is Rp 140 billion. (rms)